1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate generally to playback of media files, and in particular, pre-buffering of media files to be played based on the proximity of an input focus device.
2. Description of Related Art
As video playback on the Internet, DVRs and mobile devices continues to increase, and available catalogs of media files continue to increase, a major differentiating factor of video services and players will be the user experience, especially the responsiveness and ability to easily preview items in a catalog. The responsiveness of video or audio playback is affected by various factors, such as among other things, the time needed to request and open a video or audio clip, the available bandwidth between a receiving device and a transmitting device, and the amount of memory or cache available to buffer the video clip(s). Buffering multiple video clips also may tax a system's performance, as each clip to be buffered requires caching or storing of data locally. As a result, a video or audio file may experience initial and intermittent performance disruptions during buffering or streaming of the file, thereby preventing a user from experiencing a smooth viewing or listening of the video or audio file.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a system and method to improve the responsiveness of media file playback while minimizing the amount of data associated with a video clip to be cached.